Records: a neglected information resource in Africa

Abstract

The author describes the current condition of records management as an emerging professional discipline in Africa, which itself is undergoing extensive economic, political and social changes. He suggests that lack of awareness of records management is widespread in many public and private sector organisations. This manifests itself through inadequate policies, standards and guidelines, as well as inefficiency and lack of management continuity. He argues that each organisation in Africa should integrate their record and information systems, developing records management strategies as well as participating in co‐operative networks to exchange ideas. In Rwanda and Bosnia ethnic killing has so far gone unpunished. But Ethiopia will try ‘Butcher’ Mengistu for his war crimes. Mengistu's totalitarian regime was not alone in perpetrating grotesque abuses of human rights to keep itself in power. But it may be unique in one respect — it kept a detailed record of every abuse. Orders for mass arrests, tortures, even summary executions were all put down on paper and authorised by the people empowered to authorise them. When Mengistu wondered aloud whether no one would rid him of a turbulent priest, there was someone on hand to note it down. Thousands died, more thousands were imprisoned and tortured. The documentation for the killings is voluminous. These records were preserved when the rebel tanks rolled into Addis Ababa, and form the core of what will be the biggest international trial for the crimes against humanity since the Nuremberg trials nearly 50 years ago.